A former Dutchtown man accused of shooting another man during an alleged drug transaction in Prairieville last year has been given three years supervised probation, claiming he shot the man in self defense during a robbery.
Under a deal with Ascension Parish prosecutors, Mason Alper, 20, pleaded guilty this week to distribution of marijuana.
Prosecutors also agreed to drop four other counts against Alper, including aggravated assault with a firearm, assault by drive-by shooting and illegal use of weapons.
Sheriff's deputies had accused Alper of shooting the driver of a vehicle, who turned out to be a teen named Calvin Jack III, several times on Feb. 8, 2022.
At the time of the shooting, Jack, now 19, was in a parked vehicle with a passenger in a driveway on Ira Babin Road in Prairieville, deputies have said.
Jack was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening. The passenger was able to escape and was not shot, deputies said at the time.
Initially, after Alper turned himself into deputies and was arrested, prosecutors had charged him with attempted second-degree murder, only to have the count lowered months later.
After the plea and sentencing hearing on Thursday in Gonzales, Alex Laird, one of Alper's attorneys, said Jack had tried to rob Alper, noting that sheriff's deputies found a gun in the vehicle in which Jack was sitting.
Jack has been charged with counts of armed robbery with a handgun, illegal carrying of weapons, being a principal to marijuana distribution, and contributing to the delinquency of minors, court papers say.
Prosecutors have accused him of taking eight THC vape cartridges in the robbery. Jack has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
On Thursday, Judge Madeline Jasmine, an interim judge for the 23rd Judicial District Court, gave Alper a deferred five-year prison sentence under Louisiana's first-time felony offender law.
She also gave Alper three years’ probation and ordered that he forfeit all items deputies had previously seized in the investigation among other conditions.
The sentence matched the deal Alper's attorneys and prosecutors had reached previously.
Jack is expected back in court on March 13; he has a deadline to take or deny a proposed plea agreement from prosecutors.
The terms of that proposed plea weren't immediately available. Jack's attorney, Lloyd Capello III, didn't return a message and email for comment.
Assistant District Attorney Kenneth Dupaty, who prosecuted Alper, declined to comment Thursday.